The Dodo Archive

9-Year-Olds Kill Bear At Most Twisted Birthday Party EVER

Most 9-year-olds have a party for their birthdays. This boy took a life.

When Greg Sutley's young son, Reed, turned 9 last year, he decided the boy should celebrate by killing a bear. So he rounded up a group of children and took them out for a hunt.

A shocking video of the excursion shows a group of young children eagerly huddled on a wooden platform overlooking a black bear who was attracted to the area by some bait. "That's my bear," Reed excitedly mouths, smiling into the camera.

The older Sutley pulls out a rifle, handing it to his grinning son. The child laughs into the camera as another bear approaches, aiming his gun at the curious pair from the safety of the hidden platform.

Greg Sutley can be heard whispering instructions to his son as the camera focuses on one of the bears down below, who by this point is lying on the ground, innocent and exposed as he eats the bait Sutley set for him.

There's a heart-pounding moment as the camera focuses on the reclining bear - and then a crack rings out and he crumples. His companion runs off into the woods and the next sound we hear is the shouts and laughter of the grinning children.

Almost as shocking as the death itself is the callousness of the children. "We saw eight bears," Reed says. "One died," a friend says, grinning into the camera. "And it was amazing," says another.

"Seven more to go," Reed adds.

As the children continue to chatter about death, the camera pans to a shot of the black bear lying below the platform, a pool of red blood forming beneath his lifeless head.

The video is eerily reminiscent of the death of Cecil the lion, who was also lured from the protection of his home with bait food. While many people associate big game hunting with countries like South Africa and Zimbabwe, trophy hunting is thriving in the U.S. and Canada.

Greg Sutley, the father, makes his living off of it: He's the owner of Smoky River Outfitting, a hunting company in Alberta, Canada, whose website is filled with photos of trophy hunters grinning above the corpses of Canadian wildlife. Most of his hunts appear to be as unfair as this one.

"I use beavers, honey, cookies and grain with a lot of deep fryer grease [to bait the bears]," he writes of the black bear hunts he leads. "These baits are baited a minimum of 10 days in advance this ensures daily activity with multiple black bears. This hunt can be done from a ground blind or tree stand you will get a rush either way when a big boar comes waddling in."

This video was unearthed by the Mirror as part of an investigation into Canadian hunting practices, and the outlet said hunts like these are the reality of trophy hunting, not the rugged man v. wild encounters that most people think of.

"The use of the term 'hunter' in parts of North America is not a true reflection of these sickening expeditions," the Mirror wrote. "Hunters sit comfortably in hides or trees ... the animals are shot dead from yards away."

Sutley removed the video from his YouTube channel on Friday afternoon, but you can watch a repost below.